


Yours Now

by Castelau



Series: Half-breed, Half-truth, Half-life [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Character Study, Foreshadowing, Gen, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-02 00:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17877977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castelau/pseuds/Castelau
Summary: Kolivan muses on Keith, Krolia and that which makes Galra, Galra.





	Yours Now

**Author's Note:**

> I'm struggling with bad writers block which has stopped me doing anything of merit but... here's this. Less angsty than my usual work, I think. Don't worry though, once I kick the block, it's back to torturing my favourites mercilessly.

Kolivan had barely needed confirmation of what had happened after catching the desperate, hard look in her eyes upon returning from. It was deeply unsettling just how this screaming runt had become the only thing that mattered in her universe. Bringing him into this reality was foolish and unfair, as was abandoning him on a primitive planet too far distant to ever defend - not that they would have had the means to protect it even if had been in the next system to their main base…  
  
  
She had told him that this cub would be important but… what parent did not believe that out of pride in their own creation?   
  
  
Her clearly divided loyalty was worrisome too. If the worst were to happen and the offspring be found, there could be no doubt that Krolia would desert the Blade in a heartbeat in order to come to his defence. And he would be found, he was certain of it. No matter how many times he heard the assurance that the boy took perfectly after his sire’s species in appearance, neither one of them could deny that that could only be skin deep.   
A galra was something defined by its nature, not its appearance, and he had no doubts that any descendant of Krolia could only be fiercely Galra at heart.  
  
  
  
  
He most certainly was not wrong.   
  
  
  
One look at the red paladin unmasked left no doubt that this had to be the halfbreed.  
Human-looking enough to disguise his heritage even from himself, it was when he took in his too-sharp eyes, bared teeth and angular frame that suggested that he was still in an earlier stage of adolescence than his companions believed him to be that he saw the Galra that lay just under his skin.   
Once more, he was reminded of the recorded remark that they had heard from Zarkon, “ _He fights like a Galra, that red paladin._ ”. Truer words never had been said. Keith fought like a savage animal, instinct driving every move he made in a sloppy but effective way of fighting that could not be dignified with being called a style, despite how effective it was.   
  
He approached the trial with mulish stubbornness and the aggression of a creature that was still trying to work out just _what_ it was as much as _who_ it was. Krolia’s child through and through - hard headed and dangerous most of all due to being unpredictable rather than due to any great skill.   
  
“He’s a natural, instinctual pilot,” The black paladin told him after the trial whilst they patched his wounds, pride mixing with concern in his tone. “is that due to being part galra?”  
  
Kolivan had never seen him fly, so he could not comment but for a moment he toyed with telling him what he did know - that any talent the boy had was most certainly _not_ due to his newly discovered lineage. Instead, he shrugged and came up with a far more suitable, cryptic answer. “Our kind have fought for so long that the necessary skills for it are likely ingrained.”  
  
  
  
Quickly, he discovered that he had been conservative in his earliest worries that Krolia’s cub would be Galra at heart. He was Galra in all but looks and worse still, he was a Galra that had grown up peerless and packless, with no knowledge of how to behave.   
The first time he had spoken out of place, the boy had been angry to find himself cuffed around the head for his disrespect. The second time, he had bitten the offending hand.   
  
  
More than once, Kolivan ached to tell both mother and son about each other, if only to give one an understanding of where his heritage lay and the other the dissatisfaction of knowing that the choices she had made had removed her from her child’s life for the time being. Perhaps there was also a sense that he wished to lay claim to him, jealously place the boy’s allegiances firmly with himself.  
Now was not the right time though. He was brash and easily malleable still, whilst she was still enough of a flight risk that he did not trust that she would not abandon her post in order to find her cub. No good would come of putting them together - at best Kolivan would lose control over both of them as they teamed up and at worst they would kill one another. There was no telling given how unpredictable they had both proven to be.  
  
  
Krolia had been irritatingly right about his importance in the events that would come to change the universe though.  
  
  
Unfortunate events placed him at the head of Voltron, head and heart of the most powerful weapon the universe had ever and would ever see. The tragedy was that he was in no way ready for it and the whole reason he ended up there was also that which deprived him of the one person who could have best helped him to master his new position.  
That responsibility mellowed him in a confusing way, seeming to give him perspective even if he was still selectively deaf to orders. His resistance made more sense now - he was made to lead and not to follow, even if impulse often put others at risk when they were unable to follow his orders how _he_ envisaged them. Uncomfortably, Kolivan contemplated a new plan for the first time.  
What would it be like, for the leader of Voltron to be the next leader of the Blade of Marmora? Of course, he had no plans to relinquish power over the organisation but… if ever he saw a leader who could match him with enough time to grow into himself, it would be this boy.   
  
  
  
Time gentled Keith from a savage creature of instinct into a warrior who still relied on his instinct but who had the experience to not react foolishly from it. He found his home amongst them, accepting that he was as much Galra as he was human. That was when he realised he could deny it no longer, even as the boy placed himself more amongst Galra than with the paladins with the miraculous return of Shiro, feeling that he was now extraneous.   
No, there could be no doubts at all given his gracious bow out from the controls of the black lion. It was time to reunite family.


End file.
